The ballroom at the Conservative Political Action Conference may be filled with big names and boisterous crowds, but it’s in the small breakout rooms where activists and leaders are plotting how to undo what the Obama administration has done.

Unbeknown to California officials, oil producers in Kern County have been disposing of chemical-laden wastewater in hundreds of unlined trenches in the ground without proper permits, according to an inventory that regional water officials completed this week.

Koda, the 10-year-old male polar bear at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, emerges from a cubbyhole atop the 6,000-square-foot enclosure he shares with 14-year-old Kobe. He steps out to a nearby ledge, his head bobbing and swinging from side to side. He then backs into the cubbyhole, head still...

On a summer day in 1885, three Hawaiian princes surfed at the mouth of the San Lorenzo River on crudely constructed boards made from coastal redwoods, bringing the sport to the North American mainland.

Rajendra Pachauri, who supervised work on the two most detailed studies of climate change ever completed, stepped down as head of the United Nations panel studying the science after allegations he sexually harassed a colleague.

The threat of a growing pig disease has local farmers embracing biosecurity measures to protect their farms and livelihoods. Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, or PEDv, is pushing up pork prices and prompting action on the national level. | 06/16/14 07:16:10 By - Chip Minemyer

A Missouri slaughterhouse is recalling thousands of pounds of beef products distributed to a grocery store chain and two restaurants because the processor failed to follow federal regulations aimed at preventing mad cow disease. | 06/12/14 16:25:01 By - By Lindsay Wise

All but absent in recent years, inflation is ticking up. That’s to the delight of those who think it signals a return to economic health, to the worry of others who fear it will disrupt financial markets. | 06/12/14 09:58:21 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Decades of shortsighted decisions by industry and government have put the Mississippi River’s future at risk, and degradation at its southern Louisiana delta is contributing to “the greatest land loss on the planet,” a five-state environmental coalition warned Wednesday. | 06/11/14 18:04:57 By - By Greg Gordon

Every state except Alaska posted economic growth in 2013, with the fastest-growing states tending to have more manufacturing of soft goods and a real-estate uptick, the Commerce Department said in a report released Wednesday. | 06/11/14 16:27:19 By - By Kevin G. Hall

A requirement from the U.S. Department of Transportation last month to limit the release of information about Bakken crude oil shipments by rail has set up a conflict between railroads, states and the federal government that could wind up in court. | 06/10/14 19:29:08 By - By Curtis Tate

On Friday, the State Department revised its January report on the environmental impacts of building or not building the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, including the number of potential injuries and fatalities if Canadian oil would move by rail instead. | 06/07/14 16:48:55 By - By Curtis Tate

Another strong month of hiring should put to rest fears that the U.S. economy is downshifting _ and it suggests that there might finally be a head of steam building. | 06/06/14 17:26:48 By - By Kevin G. Hall

The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission called Thursday for new rules governing the structure of financial markets, acknowledging that high-speed trading and the largely unregulated trading areas called dark pools may be working against ordinary investors. | 06/05/14 18:08:24 By - By Kevin G. Hall

In the heart of the nation’s peanut zone, farmers are putting substantially more runners into the ground than they did last year. And in the eyes of some industry experts, that boom might spell doom. | 06/05/14 16:16:34 By - By Chris Adams

Faced with the prospects of debilitating deflation, the European Central Bank on Thursday unveiled a host of unusual measures designed to spark lending at all costs in a bid to boost businesses and consumers and keep the regions economy moving forward. | 06/05/14 16:22:18 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Brazil’s efforts to become one of the world’s major oil producers have attracted businesses such as U.S. drilling giants Halliburton and Baker Hughes, gained it partnerships with oil companies from India and China, lured immigrants from idyllic Norway and drawn investment dollars from American pension funds in Florida, South Carolina and California. | 06/05/14 15:12:31 By - By Vinod Sreeharsha

The Obama administration is contacting millions of Americans who signed up for marketplace health insurance about apparent discrepancies in the personal information they provided in their coverage applications. | 06/04/14 21:11:27 By - By Tony Pugh

A major initiative to cut the pollution emitted from the nation’s power plants set off a scramble Monday in Washington – where Republicans instantly pounced on the proposed rules – as well as in states, where much of the work in implementing the rules will be done. | 06/03/14 06:42:37 By - By Chris Adams and Lesley Clark

A White House report on its energy policy Thursday stressed good news but omitted any discussion of controversial issues such as lifting a ban on oil exports, the long-delayed Keystone pipeline or growing concern about crude oil in railroad tank cars. | 05/29/14 19:23:42 By - By Kevin G. Hall

A report Thursday from a respected oil historian argues for lifting a longstanding ban on U.S. oil exports in order to keep down gasoline prices for consumers. Its a view sure to raise eyebrows and comes amid a broader national debate about exporting Americas new energy bounty. | 05/29/14 01:00:00 By - By Sean Cockerham and Kevin G. Hall

President Barack Obama is about to unveil the centerpiece of his agenda to fight climate change, a much anticipated rule to slash the emissions of planet-warming gases from power plants. | 05/27/14 15:15:53 By - By Sean Cockerham

While scientists are engaged in an all-out, worldwide scramble to avert the energy and climate change crises, the biggest discoveries could come from a surprising quarter: a modest redwood home on a wooded, five-acre tract in rural Maryland, where a lone inventor toils day and night. | 05/27/14 14:25:03 By - By Greg Gordon

The World Trade Organization ruled Friday that China had violated trade rules when it slapped punitive duties as high as 21 percent on America-made cars and sport utility vehicles. | 05/23/14 16:55:56 By - By John Zarocostas

Americans are adapting to a world in which virtually everything _ from cellphones and cars to washing machines and refrigerators_ is going to be connected to the Internet or a network. But watch out for the toaster. | 05/23/14 14:46:46 By -

In the dark hours of the Great Recession, it was one of the few economic bright spots. Week in, week out, the health care sector was adding jobs, when construction, manufacturing and retail hiring were mired in quicksand. Now, health care is a laggard. | 05/22/14 13:46:02 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Consumers in 37 states that want affordable marketplace health coverage are more likely to pick a plan from Coventry, Humana or WellPoint, according to new research by Avalere Health. | 05/22/14 06:23:30 By - By Tony Pugh

U.S. manufacturers face a growing challenge of finding skilled workers. Currently, there are about 600,000 manufacturing job vacancies, and 2.7 million manufacturing employees are expected to retire in the next decade, according to industry groups. Northern Virginia Community College is one of a growing number of schools training workers for the manufacturing industry. | 05/22/14 14:36:17 By - Michelle Kim

The fracking revolution is not being kind to Kentucky’s role as an American energy leader, helping to decimate coal while struggling to deliver a natural gas boom for the state on par with nearby peers. | 05/21/14 12:54:24 By - By Sean Cockerham

Delivering a blow to pot growers in Washington state and Colorado, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Tuesday that it won’t allow any federally controlled water to be used on marijuana crops because Congress has banned the drug. | 05/21/14 00:04:18 By - By Rob Hotakainen

Buried in the settlement with Credit Suisse, announced formally Monday night after weeks of speculation, is a clause that pleased public interest groups. The language prevented the Swiss bank from taking, directly or indirectly, and tax deduction, credit or any other offset against the huge $2.6 billion settlement it will pay as part of the plea agreement with the DOJ and bank regulators. | 05/20/14 17:59:43 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Shopping centers and retailers want to give people an experience they can't get with a click of the mouse. Consumers want to do something or feel like they're getting treatment they couldn't get anywhere else. | 05/20/14 18:37:07 By - Charles Schelle

Charges that The New York Times paid its top female editor less than male peers has breathed new life into legislation that seeks to ensure that women and men earn the same amount for the same work performed. | 05/19/14 17:43:20 By - By Kevin G. Hall

In what it called the single highest civil penalty resulting from an automobile recall, the U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday fined General Motors $35 million for the company’s failure to report a safety defect. | 05/16/14 16:42:12 By - By Curtis Tate

The Wall Street firm that owns the railroad through Lac-Megantic, Quebec, is making plans to ship crude oil again through the lakside town devastated last summer by a fiery train derailment. | 05/16/14 16:27:47 By - By Curtis Tate

A bill to overhaul mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won approval Thursday from a divided Senate Banking Committee and moved on to an uncertain future. | 05/15/14 18:20:52 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Driving along US-411N, flanked by rolling green hills and slow-moving cows, it seems surprising to hear a DJ on the FM dial breathlessly announcing a merengue show in nearby Knoxville _ in Spanish. | 05/15/14 14:35:48 By - By Timothy Pratt

The road to becoming the next U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary got a little bumpy for Sylvia Mathews Burwell on Wednesday as she was peppered with a series of pointed questions on a wide range of issues during her second Senate nomination hearing. | 05/15/14 12:54:09 By - Tony Pugh

The United States is the only Western country _ and one of only three in the world _ that does not provide some kind of monetary payment to new mothers who’ve taken maternity leave from their jobs, a new U.N. study reports. | 05/13/14 15:53:16 By - By John Zarocostas

Seventeen states that chose not to expand eligibility for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act ended up with more program beneficiaries - partly because of all the hoopla surrounding the health law, according to a new analysis by Avalere Health. | 05/13/14 15:40:49 By - By Tony Pugh

An influential member of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors on Thursday raised the possibility of letting about 80 banks off the hook from the toughest provisions of a law requiring greater scrutiny of financial institutions. | 05/08/14 13:39:59 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Economic growth took a pause in the first three months of the year because of the harsh winter weather but is expected to pick up swiftly for the remainder of the year, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told lawmakers Wednesday. | 05/07/14 11:31:07 By - By Kevin G. Hall

“While I will not specify any particular targets, I will say this: I am personally monitoring the status of these ongoing investigations,” Holder said in a video posted by the Justice Department. | 05/06/14 13:27:13 By - By Greg Gordon

With a punishing winter behind them, employers added a sizzling 288,000 jobs in April, the government said Friday in a report that also saw a confusingly sharp drop in the unemployment rate to 6.3 percent. | 05/02/14 16:49:19 By - By Kevin G. Hall

A new investor report predicts that Standard & Poor's 500 companies could shift 90 percent of their workforce from job-based health coverage to individual insurance sold on the nation's marketplaces by 2020. | 05/01/14 00:03:36 By - By Tony Pugh

Shrugging off dismal economic growth numbers for the first quarter of 2014, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday it would taper back its controversial monthly bond-buying program by another $10 billion in May amid an improving outlook. | 04/30/14 17:13:32 By - By Kevin G. Hall

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Tuesday asked Congress to end the prohibition on tolling existing interstate highways as a way of paying for their reconstruction, marking a major shift away from how the system has been funded for decades. | 04/29/14 18:09:21 By - By Curtis Tate

Along with prosperity, oil shipments have brought worry to communities along the rail lines. Since last summer, deadly and destructive derailments have created anxiety among community leaders from coast to coast. | 04/25/14 13:16:50 By - By Curtis Tate

While failing to seal a deal on his ambitious plan to expand trade in the Pacific Rim, President Barack Obama on Thursday said a long-stalled trade pact still can be finalized if Japan opens its markets and accepts more U.S. exports of everything from cars to farm goods. | 04/24/14 22:02:04 By - By Rob Hotakainen

A spate of new economic reports shows that a speedier recovery of the housing market does not appear in the cards this year. Housing experts are dialing back rosier projections in favor of another ho-hum year, where home sales are flat and prices climb to make ownership less affordable. | 04/24/14 17:48:47 By - By Kevin G. Hall

The Federal Communications Commission plans to propose new rules today that would let Internet service providers charge companies to move their content through a speedier lane, a “pay for play” model that opponents say will kill net neutrality. | 04/24/14 15:17:57 By - By Vera Bergengruen

In response to a deadly train derailment last summer, the Canadian government Wednesday ordered the countrys railroads to phase out tens of thousands of older, puncture-prone tank cars from crude oil transportation within three years. | 04/24/14 06:58:22 By - By Curtis Tate

Concerned about the future finances of Social Security and ample evidence that Americans are failing to save enough for retirement, the Bipartisan Policy Center on Wednesday launched a new Personal Savings Initiative. | 04/23/14 12:59:20 By - By Kevin G. Hall

None of the tank cars currently in service carrying Bakken crude oil is adequate for carrying that product, a rail industry representative testified Tuesday, but until new federal regulations are completed, the use of inadequate cars will continue. | 04/23/14 00:28:58 By - By Curtis Tate

The push to start drilling in the Atlantic Ocean is gaining momentum and dividing people along the grand coast of South Carolina, where some local leaders fear what it could mean for tourism. | 04/22/14 16:09:59 By - By Sean Cockerham

The Cowboy and Indian Alliance met Tuesday morning in front of the Capital to kick off a five-day protest against the proposed expansion of the Keystone XL Pipeline. | 04/22/14 17:18:17 By - Anna Bisaro

The Obama administration is indefinitely delaying a decision on approving the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, likely putting off any action until after the November midterm elections. | 04/18/14 18:35:50 By - By Sean Cockerham

Hundreds of interstate highway fatalities have been prevented in multiple states by relatively inexpensive safety devices that were not in place at the site of a fiery bus-truck collision last week in California that killed 10 people. | 04/18/14 18:17:16 By - By Curtis Tate

America’s diplomats and generals aren’t alone in watching the unfolding conflict between Russia and neighboring Ukraine. The U.S. agriculture sector is following the faraway events closely for reasons of both opportunity and risk. | 04/16/14 18:10:29 By - By Kevin G. Hall

One in four Americans waited until the end of tax season to file their returns and a majority think they pay about the right amount in federal taxes, according to a new McClatchy-Marist Poll released just before the tax deadline. | 04/14/14 16:00:33 By - By Kevin G. Hall

General Motors lengthy delay in disclosing defective ignition switches, which are now blamed for at least 13 deaths, bears a striking similarity to Toyota Motor Corp.s concealment of deadly acceleration problems in its automobiles that triggered a U.S. criminal investigation and $1.2 billion in fines for Toyota. | 04/10/14 18:48:20 By - By Greg Gordon

In a high-ceilinged classroom, bright sun poking through the blinds and reflecting off the whiteboard, eight students lug heavy textbooks to their desks and prepare for this afternoon’s lesson: | 04/10/14 10:49:19 By - By Jon Marcus

Emergency response officials told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday that big cities and small towns alike are unprepared for a disaster on the scale of an oil train derailment and fire last year in Quebec that destroyed part of a town and killed 47 people. | 04/10/14 06:19:33 By - By Curtis Tate

Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo is pushing a bill in Congress that would shift responsibility for any labeling of genetically modified foods to the hands of the federal government, potentially stopping the efforts underway in many states to mandate labels on such foods. | 04/10/14 05:52:05 By - By Chris Adams

Motorola Solutions Inc. is rejecting as “innuendo” a series of stories in which McClatchy examined the company’s decades-long dominance of the nation’s emergency communications market. | 04/08/14 15:54:23 By - By Greg Gordon

Just a few years ago, the region’s refineries were on life support, hurt by high prices of oil imported from foreign countries. Now, they’re humming again with the daily deliveries of domestic crude in mile-long trains. | 04/08/14 07:28:52 By - By Curtis Tate

The Treasury Department will push trading partners to expand aid to Ukraine when the International Monetary Fund and World Bank hold their annual spring meetings later this week, officials said Monday. | 04/07/14 16:45:47 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Employers added a robust 192,000 jobs in March, the government said Friday, and revisions to earlier months point to an improving economy with underlying strength. | 04/04/14 09:00:30 By - By Kevin G. Hall

As usual, Gene Halbin rolled a fat one after lunch. Hed taken a couple of hits when two strangers appeared at the front door. Halbins place sits way out of town, off the blacktop, down a dirt road, round a bend, over a bridge and deep into some woods in northwestern Bates County. Good bet they werent solicitors working the neighborhood | 04/01/14 15:58:26 By - Donald Bradley

As rail shipments of crude oil have risen inNorthernCalifornia, so has opposition in many communities along rail lines and near the refineries they supply. | 04/01/14 06:57:26 By - By Curtis Tate and Tony Bizjak

Since at least last September, trains carrying tank cars filled with crude oil have rolled into the the former McClellan Air Force base. Workers have transferred the oil, including some volatile Bakken crude, from trains to tanker trucks, which take it toBay Area refineries. | 03/31/14 17:05:51 By - By Curtis Tate and Tony Bizjak

For more than a century, federal scientists have worked on Pivers Island near the historic town of Beaufort, N.C., and the beaches of Emerald Isle studying the ocean, and the fish, turtles and dolphins of its sea grass estuaries and rocky reefs. | 03/31/14 08:16:19 By - By Renee Schoof and Jay Price

It was just one piece of equipment in an intricate emergency digital radio network, but the 2005 purchase of a Motorola master controller by California’s Alameda County started an often nasty intra-governmental tug of war that has worn on for nearly nine years. | 03/31/14 17:54:07 By - By Greg Gordon and Lydia Mulvany

Motorola executives dont talk much about their efforts to win friends in high places, but a trail of public records provides the outlines of the companys attempts to cultivate loyalty and befriend key government decision makers. | 03/30/14 07:01:05 By - By Lydia Mulvany and Greg Gordon

As a Motorola saleswoman from 2004 to 2006, Laura Phillips coached local officials on how to secure state and federal grant money to pay for new public safety radio equipment. | 03/30/14 07:01:05 By - By Greg Gordon and Lydia Mulvany

It looked in the summer of 2011 as if electronics giant Raytheon Corp. had gained a major foothold in the U.S. emergency communications market long dominated by one company: Motorola. | 03/30/14 07:01:05 By - By Greg Gordon and Lydia Mulvany

Mississippis governor fought back hard from one of Hurricane Katrinas more exasperating blows  a knockout punch to emergency radio systems that forced rescue workers along parts of the Gulf Coast to communicate with hand-carried notes. | 03/30/14 07:01:05 By - By Greg Gordon, Paul Hampton and Lydia Mulvany

Without inviting competitive bids, Kansas officials awarded Motorola a $50 million deal to build a new statewide emergency radio network by crafting it as an amendment to a contract signed 14 years earlier. | 03/30/14 07:01:05 By - By Greg Gordon and Deb Gruver

At the eastern end of the San Francisco Bay Area, Sheriff Warren Rupf of Contra Costa County and cigar-chomping Sheriff Charlie Plummer of neighboring Alameda County were political powerhouses seemingly locked in an endless duel of one-upsmanship. | 03/30/14 07:01:05 By - By Greg Gordon and Lydia Mulvany

When it comes to unmanned aerial vehicles, its starting to become the Wild West out there. Drones are flying across the U.S. and being used by researchers, farmers, amateur photographers and others. | 03/27/14 12:30:12 By - Molly McMillin

The World Trade Organization on Wednesday sided with the United States against China in a trade dispute that could affect the price of nearly every modern electronic product manufactured today. | 03/26/14 18:04:15 By - By John Zarocostas

The Obama administration on Monday approved a terminal on the Oregon coast to export U.S. natural gas abroad, as pressure mounts on the president to use the nation’s energy bounty as a foreign policy weapon. | 03/24/14 17:24:20 By - By Sean Cockerham

The United States retained its lead as the world’s most inventive country in 2013, accounting for 27.9 percent of all international patent applications, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization, which tracks patent applications in 148 nations. | 03/21/14 17:20:32 By - By John Zarocostas

The Federal Reserve continued tapering its controversial bond purchases on Wednesday, trimming back another $10 billion a month in April and signaling clearly that it expects to promote low borrowing rates well beyond the end of its stimulus efforts. | 03/19/14 17:37:02 By - By Kevin G. Hall

As the nation’s only truly legal supplier of marijuana, the U.S. government keeps tight control of its stash, which is grown in a 12-acre fenced garden on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford. | 03/19/14 15:36:45 By - By Rob Hotakainen

European nations are begging the United States to send them natural gas to blunt dependence on Russia, but a lack of infrastructure and market realities are calling into question America’s ability to flex its new muscles as the world’s leading energy power. | 03/18/14 18:42:01 By - By Sean Cockerham and Kevin G. Hall

With diplomatic efforts having failed to defuse the crisis in Ukraine, political and business leaders are worried that plans to place sanctions on the Kremlin will create an economic meltdown in the economies of the European Union and Ukraine, both of which have important trade relations with Russia and depend on it for their energy supplies. | 03/16/14 09:42:41 By - John Zarocostas

The Federal Reserves controversial bond-buying program, designed to stimulate the U.S. economy, generated interest income of $90 billion in 2013, an audit of the central bank confirmed Friday. | 03/14/14 17:55:15 By - By Kevin G. Hall

On a recent day off from her assembly plant job, Antonia Morena put on her prettiest blouse, painted her lips bright red, and returned to her factory, her fiance at her side. | 03/14/14 07:22:22 By - By Tim Johnson

In this small state with a very big legislature, the top official at the association for grocery stores knew he had a lot of people to convince about an important food-labeling bill. But he also had a lot of members on his side. | 03/13/14 06:46:27 By - By Chris Adams

The new chairman of Sprint Corp. says that if the U.S. government will let him take over T-Mobile, hell declare a price war that would revolutionize the American mobile market in the same way he overturned Japans. | 03/12/14 10:58:47 By - By Lindsay Wise

The mayor of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, where 47 people died in a massive inferno following a train derailment last summer, came to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to push lawmakers and regulators for rail safety improvements. | 03/12/14 06:47:43 By - By Curtis Tate

A study to be released Wednesday about the world’s oldest profession concludes that the lucrative underground commercial sex economy in eight large U.S. metropolitan areas brings in anywhere from $40 million annually to as much as nearly $300 million. | 03/12/14 00:00:00 By - By Kevin G. Hall and Daniel White

Last Mothers Day, Jaret Graham, 14, climbed on the back of an all-terrain vehicle driven by his 12-year-old cousin. As they sped down a paved stretch of country road in west Texas, the 12-year-old lost control, the vehicle went into a ditch and the cousin fell off, injuring his leg. Jaret was thrown off and hit his head on a cattle guard, a barrier made from steel pipes. He died instantly. | 03/10/14 15:05:41 By - By Bridget Huber

Charlotte-based Chiquita Brands International said Monday that it plans to merge with Irish fruit company Fyffes, splitting senior executives between Charlotte and Dublin and creating the worlds largest banana company. | 03/10/14 13:29:00 By - Ely Portillo

A better-than-expected February jobs report Friday from the Labor Department renewed expectations of economic acceleration in the months ahead and snapped a two-month lull in hiring. | 03/07/14 15:54:30 By - By Kevin G. Hall

While supporters and opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline have been busy debating the controversial proposal, the oil that it’s intended to move has found another carrier _ one that didn’t require the president’s stamp of approval or several years and billions of dollars to construct. | 03/06/14 06:19:53 By - By Curtis Tate

President Barack Obama – and the governors of four New England states – dined Wednesday at a college town eatery that pays its employees more than the minimum wage, as Obama pressed his election-year campaign to “give America a raise.” | 03/05/14 17:22:44 By - By Anita Kumar and Lesley Clark

Over the last three years janet Sweeting has perfected the fiery, smoky, multi-stage task that scores of others around Kansas City have been busy with in these days leading up to Ash Wednesday: making ashes. These faithful do-it-yourselfers fulfill a growing need as more churches observe Ash Wednesday, adding new twists to an old tradition. | 03/05/14 12:16:04 By - Lisa Gutierrez

Have we gone crazy for coconut? Just take a look around the supermarket these days: Coconut oil, coconut milk, coconut water. A message came through on the health claims: Not so fast. Many claims arent proven, and the products can have hidden nutrition costs. | 03/05/14 12:06:55 By - Kathleen Purvis

Frustrated with the sluggish speed and high cost of their Internet service providers, the residents of Wilson, N.C., decided a few years ago to take matters into their own hands – they would simply build their own connection. | 03/05/14 13:19:15 By - By Vera Bergengruen

In his budget to be released Tuesday, President Barack Obama will propose expanding a tax credit popular with lower- and middle-class families and paying for it by closing a controversial tax loophole deployed by some Wall Street firms, according to the White House. | 03/03/14 20:02:03 By - Anita Kumar and Kevin G. Hall

As Russia tightened its grip Monday on the Crimean peninsula, the Obama administration scrambled to find meaningful ways to sanction a nation that does relatively little U.S. business and exports primarily energy products that allies in Europe badly need. | 03/03/14 16:54:15 By - Kevin G. Hall

Signals emitted by your smartphone leave a digital trail that retailers can follow to find out how long you lingered in front of a sales rack or languished in a checkout line. | 03/03/14 06:00:00 By - By Lindsay Wise

The Environmental Protection Agency is putting the brakes on the massive Pebble Mine project in Alaska, saying it endangers the finest wild salmon run on Earth. | 02/28/14 17:41:03 By - By Sean Cockerham

The Interior Department is endorsing seismic exploration for oil and gas in Atlantic waters, a crucial move toward starting drilling off the Carolinas, Virginia and possibly down to Florida. | 02/27/14 17:17:29 By - By Sean Cockerham

Consumers soon might have easier access to their credit scores after federal regulators sent letters urging credit card companies to strongly consider including the information at no cost online and on monthly statements. | 02/27/14 15:52:25 By - By Lindsay Wise

Who audits the biggest bank of them all? Once dismissed as a crackpot cause, the idea of a complete and real-time audit of the Federal Reserve is gaining support in Congress. | 02/27/14 12:49:32 By - By Kevin G. Hall

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday proposed a redesigned Nutrition Facts label for packaged foods that will highlight calorie counts and recalculate serving sizes in an effort to reduce the Americans' rate of chronic diseases such as obesity and heart disease. | 02/27/14 11:32:02 By - By Lindsay Wise

The chief of a federal agency tasked with improving the safety of crude oil shipments by rail declined Wednesday to give lawmakers a date for new tank car rules that railroads and safety officials have sought for years. | 02/26/14 19:34:33 By - By Curtis Tate

The chairman of the Republican-led House of Representatives’ tax-writing panel proposed on Wednesday the first complete overhaul of the nation’s tax code since 1986, a plan that both political parties are likely to debate throughout this election year. | 02/26/14 17:49:40 By - By David Lightman and Kevin G. Hall

A massive North Carolina coal waste spill into a major river is increasing pressure on the Obama administration to start policing the more than 1,000 such waste storage sites across the nation. | 02/26/14 06:55:26 By - By Sean Cockerham

The Department of Transportation banned about 3 percent of a fleet of railroad tank cars from carrying flammable crude oil Tuesday, according to the rail industrys leading advocacy group, leaving tens of thousands more vulnerable cars in service. | 02/25/14 19:41:04 By - By Curtis Tate

The Department of Justice has neglected to collect billions in unpaid U.S. taxes by failing to aggressively prosecute Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse Group AG, a Senate investigative report said late Tuesday, shortly before executives from the bank are scheduled to testify under oath. | 02/25/14 18:09:46 By - By Kevin G. Hall

The rail industry asked the Department of Transportation three years ago to write new regulations for railroad tank cars that were carrying the countrys nascent oil boom. | 02/25/14 06:00:00 By - By Curtis Tate

All the jawboning about the big farm bill was over two weeks ago, when Congress finally passed the $956 billion package. But for America’s farmers, the decisions are just beginning. And they could get complicated. | 02/24/14 06:34:52 By - By Chris Adams

When the financial crisis deepened in September 2008, Federal Reserve leaders initially viewed it as a problem that would reverse itself. Janet Yellen, now the new Fed chair, was the earliest voice for aggressive action, transcripts released Friday show. | 02/21/14 18:41:18 By - By Kevin G. Hall

The Department of Transportation outlined several steps Friday aimed at improving the safety of crude oil in trains after a series of derailments sparked concern from state and local officials. | 02/21/14 18:04:29 By - By Curtis Tate

A bidding war of sorts has broken out in Washington state, where politicians are scrambling to raise the state’s minimum wage of $9.32, already the highest in the nation. | 02/21/14 15:08:25 By - By Rob Hotakainen

The top federal regulator who oversees rules that govern the Internet on Wednesday waded into the thorny issue of a service provider’s right to restrict content. | 02/19/14 18:40:08 By - By Daniel White

President Barack Obama met Wednesday with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts but little tangible came out of the Three Amigos summit, a further sign that the world’s largest trading bloc is on autopilot, hobbled by spats between members. | 02/19/14 22:00:09 By - By Tim Johnson

The Federal Reserve moved Tuesday to correct one of the main causes of the 2008 financial crisis, ordering the nation’s largest domestic banks and foreign ones operating in the United States to hold more capital in case things go bad. | 02/18/14 18:59:33 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour could lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty but also cost a half million jobs, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday in a report that’s sure to feed a simmering debate over how to help loft people up the economic ladder. | 02/18/14 18:39:15 By - By Kevin G. Hall and Sean Cockerham

Democrats Tuesday estimated that the U.S. economy will lose more than $3 billion in January and February because emergency jobless benefits have not been extended. | 02/18/14 12:24:16 By - David Lightman

The nation's top concern--unemployment, according to a new Gallup survey. Twenty-three percent mentioned jobs as the country's number one problem, with "the economy in general" second at 20 percent. | 02/17/14 17:03:07 By - David Lightman

Faith Spotted Eagle figures that building a crude oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast would bring little to Indian Country besides more crime and dirty water, but she doubts that Native Americans will ever get the U.S. government to block the $7 billion project. | 02/17/14 06:00:00 By - By Rob Hotakainen

Marking another milestone for the legal marijuana industry, the Obama administration on Friday said it has advised U.S. attorneys in states where the sale of marijuana is legal not to prosecute banks that allow pot stores to open accounts and accept credit-card payments. | 02/14/14 17:52:14 By - By Rob Hotakainen

As millions of Americans gain health coverage through the Affordable Care Acts Medicaid expansion, experts say their higher rates of mental health and substance abuse disorders will be difficult to treat due to a lack of counselors and behavioral therapists who accept Medicaid patients. | 02/13/14 16:31:55 By - By Tony Pugh

Racing into a new century in which many of the old rules don’t seem to apply anymore, Americans are overwhelmingly pessimistic about their chances of achieving and sustaining the American dream, according to a new Marist-McClatchy Poll. | 02/13/14 09:32:22 By - By David Lightman

The National Rural Water Association held its annual Great American Water Taste Test on Wednesday, and the best drink in the house came from Curtis, Neb., population 935. | 02/12/14 18:36:17 By - By Daniel White

When the German version of the FBI needs to share sensitive information these days, it types it up and hand-delivers it. This time last year, it would have trusted in the security of email. But that was before revelations of the scope of the National Security Agency’s intelligence-gathering. | 02/12/14 06:00:00 By - By Matthew Schofield

Testifying on Tuesday for the first time as the head of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen promised lawmakers continuity with her predecessor, shrugged off the threat of rising financial volatility in developing nations and stressed that she’ll look beyond the labor market to decide when to begin raising interest rates. | 02/11/14 15:24:58 By - By Kevin G. Hall

A public advocacy group filed a legal challenge Monday to block implementation of a record $13 billion civil settlement between Attorney General Eric Holder and Wall Street powerhouse JP Morgan Chase. | 02/10/14 16:29:17 By - By Kevin G. Hall

An insect that’s no bigger than the head of a pin _ the Asian citrus psyllid _ is responsible for spreading a disease called citrus greening that is wreaking havoc on citrus growers in Florida. And growers in other states, particularly California, are on guard as the disease shows signs of coming to their areas. | 02/07/14 06:00:00 By - By Chris Adams

Republicans in the House of Representatives are in disarray over what to do about paying the nations bills, with the deadline looming and the party divided on whether to demand concessions from the White House in return for raising the borrowing authority needed to fund the government. | 02/06/14 18:13:29 By - By Sean Cockerham

Brazil is confronting numerous challenges this year, from international investors fleeing developing nations to the slowing economy in China – a major trade partner – to local protests over Brazil’s preparations to host the World Cup in June. | 02/06/14 16:40:20 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Several years of budget battles and a government shutdown last year captured headlines but amounted to fights over the easy stuff. A new projection for the U.S. fiscal outlook over the next decade makes it clear the hard choices are still ahead as the baby boom generation retires. | 02/06/14 15:29:29 By - By Kevin G. Hall

A government analysis sparked fierce debate Tuesday, projecting that the Affordable Care Act will lead American workers to voluntarily put in fewer hours on the job, a total that would add up to the equivalent of as many as 2.5 million jobs over the next decade. | 02/04/14 18:22:16 By - By Kevin G. Hall, Lesley Clark and Tony Pugh

The massive farm bill that emerged from the U.S. Senate Tuesday and is on its way to President Barack Obama will substantially change farmers’ lives nationwide and make a step toward altering the way they’ve done business for decades. | 02/04/14 18:25:00 By - By Chris Adams

The State Department minimized the climate change impact of building the Keystone XL pipeline in its final environmental review issued on Friday, a key finding as President Barack Obama decides whether to approve the controversial project. | 01/31/14 19:43:32 By - By Sean Cockerham and Curtis Tate

Tapping the bully pulpit, President Barack Obama used the White House backdrop Friday to urge American companies – and Congress – to help the nearly 4 million long-term unemployed. | 01/31/14 17:01:58 By - By Anita Kumar and Kevin G. Hall

Countries that supply China with raw materials got a taste in January of what the future holds as the world’s second largest economy prepares to restructure itself and dampen its mega-growth of the last two decades. | 01/31/14 18:41:05 By - By Stuart Leavenworth

The Denver Museum of Art is putting up a Remington bronco statue to the Seattle Art Museum's giant Japanese screen of an eagle perched over waves with the losing city in the Super Bowl having to loan the winner the artwork for three months. | 01/31/14 06:03:09 By - Maria Recio

The U.S. Department of Transportation collects relatively small civil penalties against the railroads it regulates, as concern grows over the safety of shipping large volumes of crude oil and ethanol in tank cars long known to be deficient, federal documents show. | 01/30/14 19:05:15 By - By Curtis Tate

For the first time, the farm bill would allow nine states – including Kentucky and California – to use hemp, pot’s nonintoxicating sister plant, for research and academic purposes. | 01/29/14 18:26:10 By - By Rob Hotakainen

Looking past soft December data, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced it will further taper back its controversial bond-purchasing program designed to stimulate economic activity. | 01/29/14 17:22:17 By - Kevin G. Hall

President Barack Obama on Tuesday followed a familiar script for presidents entering their sixth year, as he tried to revive his waning political clout while shaping his legacy. | 01/28/14 21:35:07 By - By David Lightman

A growing number of prominent economists question how much the gap has widened between America’s richest and poorest, a divide that President Barack Obama is to highlight in his State of the Union address Tuesday. | 01/28/14 18:58:10 By - By Kevin G. Hall

When Ben Bernanke prepared to lead the Federal Reserve in January 2006, the former Princeton University professor and economic historian confided to colleagues that he hoped hed be one of the least remembered chairmen of the Federal Reserve. | 01/27/14 13:47:42 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Long before crude oil and ethanol were transported by railroads in large quantities in minimally reinforced tank cars, other flammable and poisonous materials were riding around the country in the same cars, threatening major cities and waterways. | 01/27/14 06:00:00 By - By Curtis Tate

The Department of Agriculture reported more than $6 billion in improper payments last year, seeing its overall error rate tick up during a time the Obama administration was aggressively seeking to lower such mistakes, according to a recently released audit. | 01/23/14 18:41:42 By - By Chris Adams

The National Transportation Safety Board called Thursday for federal regulators to take more aggressive steps to protect the public and the environment from oil spills and fires from trains. | 01/23/14 17:03:24 By - By Curtis Tate

Oil began flowing Wednesday through the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline, as a massive environmental battle continues over whether President Barack Obama should approve the northern portion to tap Canadian oil sands. | 01/23/14 06:51:11 By - By Sean Cockerham

Brazil is threatening to launch a full-blown trade war against the U.S. next month, accusing Congress of ignoring an order by the World Trade Organization to stop subsidizing its domestic cotton growers. | 01/23/14 06:00:00 By - By Rob Hotakainen

Fish sold on retail U.S. markets are routinely mislabeled, harming consumers while threatening the livelihoods of American fishermen, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Democratic Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts said in a letter Wednesday to President Barack Obama. | 01/22/14 18:23:15 By - By Greg Gordon

More crude oil was spilled in U.S. rail incidents last year than was spilled in the nearly four decades since the federal government began collecting data on such spills, an analysis of the data shows. | 01/20/14 16:40:15 By - By Curtis Tate

The world’s richest 85 people control the same amount of wealth as half the world’s population, according to a report issued Monday by the British-based anti-poverty charity Oxfam. | 01/20/14 16:19:46 By - By Matthew Schofield

If oddsmakers are correct, the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos will win Sundays National Football League conference championship games, advancing to a truly historic Super Bowl on Feb. 2: | 01/17/14 06:43:51 By - By Rob Hotakainen

If the Obama administration gives the green light soon, fewer federal inspectors will be present in poultry processing plants and the lines will be allowed to speed up, a change that critics say could be risky for both food and worker safety. | 01/16/14 15:00:36 By - By Renee Schoof

State and federal officials assured lawmakers on Capitol Hill Wednesday that Californias $68 billion high-speed rail system would move forward despite recent legal setbacks that have created new uncertainties for the embattled project. | 01/15/14 18:53:14 By - By Curtis Tate

Investment in clean energy is faltering at the same time the United Nations and others say it needs to quadruple to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change. | 01/15/14 18:15:50 By - By Sean Cockerham

The Federal Reserve, in a surprise move, set the ball rolling late Tuesday for possible new limits on ownership of physical commodities by the large financial holding companies on Wall Street that it regulates. | 01/14/14 19:57:03 By - By Kevin G. Hall

The vast revamp of financial regulation in 2010 was created to protect the poor from the predatory lenders who drove the economy into financial turmoil. But groups such as Habitat for Humanity say that some new regulations crafted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will inadvertently stop nonprofits from helping some of those same low-income families get into homes. | 01/14/14 18:04:50 By - By Franco Ordonez

Congress spending plan for the federal government touches almost every facet of American life, as it tackles big priorities such as health care, education and combating terrorism as well as smaller concerns such as the future of light bulbs. | 01/14/14 17:47:30 By - By David Lightman, Kevin G. Hall and Hannah Allam

The cruise ship industry is working to implement new safety measures for its passenger fleet, although efforts to use technology to detect passengers falling overboard aren’t yet in place, according to a new oversight report. | 01/13/14 17:29:30 By - By Chris Adams

The Obama administration is nearing a decision on allowing seismic testing off the Atlantic Coast, a critical step in opening waters off Virginia, the Carolinas and elsewhere to oil drilling. | 01/13/14 04:42:20 By - By Sean Cockerham

After criticizing a U.S. trade deal with Mexico and Canada when he ran for the White House, Barack Obama has emerged as one of the most aggressive pro-trade presidents ever, angering many of his fellow Democrats along the way. | 01/10/14 13:19:17 By - By Rob Hotakainen

A series of fiery derailments, including a deadly wreck in Quebec last summer and a near-miss last week in North Dakota, have gained the attention of lawmakers, who until this point had said little about the issue. | 01/09/14 18:39:49 By - Curtis Tate

The company said only five cockroaches were found in the massive plant over the past four months, but it carried out enhanced sanitizing Wednesday and expects it to reopen soon. It also said no products have been affected. | 01/09/14 07:59:00 By - BY JOHN HOLLAND AND RAMONA GIWARGIS

Sen. Marco Rubio on Wednesday proposed a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s anti-poverty programs, arguing that for decades Washington has been too fixed on dealing with poverty’s consequences rather than its causes. | 01/08/14 17:35:45 By - By David Lightman

By springtime, Bill Iyall figures the Cowlitz Tribe in Washington state will have 152 acres of new land in place and can make plans to break ground for its new casino in 2015. | 01/08/14 06:00:00 By - By Rob Hotakainen

Supporters of the longer unemployment benefits that the Senate is now debating make a humanitarian argument: Jobless people need the money to keep a roof over their heads and bread on their tables. But the question gets more complicated when the argument turns to whether longer unemployment aid helps the econom | 01/07/14 19:01:59 By - By Renee Schoof

The push to end the ban on exporting U.S. crude oil to foreign nations is at a level not seen in decades, with the top Republican on the Senate Energy Committee joining the call Tuesday. | 01/07/14 16:48:52 By - By Sean Cockerham

President Barack Obama pressed Congress on Tuesday to extend jobless benefits for 1.3 million Americans, dismissing the suggestion that the checks lead people to shun work and insisting theres no need for budget offsets to pay the price. | 01/07/14 16:10:18 By - By David Lightman and Lesley Clark

Total public and private spending for health care in the United States increased to nearly $2.8 trillion in 2012, or nearly $9,000 per person, according to a government report released Monday. | 01/07/14 05:49:09 By - By Tony Pugh

The Senate voted 56-26 to confirm Yellen, who’s been the vice chair of the Fed since 2010. Yellen, 67, will take the helm after Chairman Ben Bernanke’s second four-year term ends Jan. 31. | 01/06/14 18:46:08 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Mel Watt was sworn into a top housing finance post Monday afternoon while simultaneously bringing to an end a career in Congress spanning more than two decades. | 01/06/14 16:10:42 By - By Franco Ordonez

Sen. Richard Burr, a former businessman in North Carolina, says he wants the federal government to put the Small Business Administration inside a new agency that combines the departments of Commerce and Labor. | 01/04/14 21:00:00 By - By Renee Schoof

The Senate will immediately take up extension of federal jobless benefits when it gets back to work on Monday after its holiday break, and the vote will put Sen. Kay Hagan at the center of a new political fracas. | 01/03/14 19:05:46 By - By Renee Schoof

As the U.S. economy struggled to gain steam in recent years it faced head winds from Europes deep debt crisis, a stagnant Japan, investor aversion to emerging economies and a slowdown in China that would pass for a blistering pace anywhere else. | 01/03/14 16:40:03 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Fiery train crashes as far back as 2006 have highlighted a safety issue thats growing with the U.S. energy boom. But little has been done to improve the safety of tens of thousands of railroad tank cars that have been pressed into service in recent years to haul large quantities of crude oil and ethanol. | 01/02/14 19:05:35 By - By Curtis Tate

After years of politicking and planning, Colorado will make history Wednesday when it opens the first retail marijuana stores in the United States, allowing state residents to buy up to an ounce of the drug. | 12/31/13 16:32:40 By - By Rob Hotakainen

Here they come, bringing up the end of the parade, just as they always have: The youngest members of the baby boom generation begin turning 50 on New Years Day. Happy birthday, youngest boomers, and welcome to your AARP cards and discounted Dennys meals. | 12/31/13 12:28:20 By - Anita Creamer

Five ways exports are changing across America. From Midwestern beef and Georgian peanuts finding a market in China to the rivalry between fishing in mining in Alaska to landlocked states' using higheways for shipping and manufacturing taking off in the South. | 12/30/13 14:05:38 By - Medill News Service

After a record-setting harvest in 2012, peanut growers in Georgia found a new trading partner: China, which was scrambling to fill gaps in its peanut-supply chain. Whether China will remain a big customer is on the minds of Georgias farmers. | 12/30/13 13:16:22 By - By Catherine Brzycki

As many states look to increase their global exports, one of the biggest challenges may be among the most basic: finding ways to move products so theyre ready to be shipped overseas. In Idaho, thats led to a search for more trucks and more truckers. | 12/30/13 13:13:36 By - By Jayna Omaye

A proposed copper mine in remote Alaska could be a boon for the states mining export industry. But it could harm another prized export business: fishing. What happens when one export titan clashes with another? | 12/30/13 13:12:25 By - Diana Blass and Marina Cracchiolo

Sun Belt states have watched as some of their bedrock industries withered away. Officials and educators in North Carolina, Mississippi and elsewhere are now looking to new forms of manufacturing, such as autos and aviation. | 12/30/13 13:10:43 By - By Elena Schneider and Andrea Mayeux

After a mad-cow disease scare a decade ago, U.S. beef exports have slowly climbed back. Now U.S. farmers are hopeful that theyll get clearance to export to China, where demand for beef is growing. | 12/30/13 13:09:12 By - By Megan Pauly

The U.S. is in the midst of a push to increase exports, one that began in January of 2010 when President Barack Obama announced the National Export Initiative in his State of the Union address. | 12/30/13 13:07:16 By - By Bryan Lowry, Tanvi Misra and Katie Peralta

Freight congestion has caused massive delays and even cancellations of a popular Amtrak train in recent months, a situation that could worsen as one of the nation’s largest rail companies plans to increase shipments of fossil fuels on much of the route. | 12/24/13 07:08:35 By - By Curtis Tate

Global mining giant Rio Tinto said Monday it is considering dumping its stake in Alaska’s Pebble Mine, a huge open pit mine planned for the best remaining wild salmon stronghold on Earth. | 12/24/13 07:08:35 By - By Sean Cockerham

April Capil has mixed feelings about the national outcry over canceled health insurance policies. Like millions of Americans, Capil thought she had solid individual health insurance. Then she got sick and found that her coverage was woefully inadequate. | 12/20/13 06:09:36 By - By Tony Pugh

The Obama administration on Wednesday sounded the alarm over rising marijuana use among the nation’s youth, saying that softening attitudes about the perceived risk of the drug are responsible for the increase. | 12/18/13 22:20:35 By - By Rob Hotakainen

The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday the beginning of the end for a controversial bond-buying program in support of the U.S. economy, a signal of an improving recovery that sent stocks soaring at the close of trading. | 12/18/13 17:51:49 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Los Angeles Schools Superintendent John Deasy has called the intended $1 billion program to provide an iPad to every student in the district a civil rights imperative with potential to equalize access to technology. | 12/18/13 15:41:26 By - By Brenda Iasevoli

It was the finishing touch on Michael and Brandi Helvey’s Georgia dream house: an elevator to accommodate Michael’s mother, who was in her 80s and living with them downstairs. | 12/18/13 07:07:58 By - By Shawn Hubler

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday asked financial institutions to disclose to the public the payments they make to colleges and universities to promote their debit cards and other products to students. | 12/17/13 16:12:31 By - Renee Schoof

Environmental advocates are targeting a decades-old Environmental Protection Agency system that they say allows potentially harmful pesticides on the market. | 12/17/13 07:51:01 By - By Kendall Helblig

U.S. oil production will surge toward a record high in the next two years and the nation’s natural gas dominance is expected to rise for decades, according to a new government forecast. | 12/16/13 17:29:42 By - By Sean Cockerham

The House of Representatives on Thursday approved by a vote of 332-94 a modest bipartisan plan to spend more on both defense and domestic programs for the next two years, an agreement aimed at avoiding government shutdowns and easing automatic spending cuts. | 12/12/13 18:38:04 By - By David Lightman and William Douglas

The most dramatic overhaul of Mexico’s oil industry in modern times came closer to fruition Thursday when Congress approved a proposal to end the state oil company’s 75-year-old monopoly on the nation’s oil and natural gas fields. | 12/12/13 19:45:36 By -

Congress is once again debating whether to extend unemployment benefits. Democrats say it’s critical both for the people involved and the economy. Republicans say a falling jobless rate shows the economy is strong enough to let the extended benefits end. | 12/12/13 15:21:22 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Republican Rep. Kevin Brady says he has a surefire plan to create thousands of jobs in his home state of Texas and across the country: Scrap the tax on foreigners who buy U.S. real estate. | 12/11/13 06:00:00 By - By Rob Hotakainen

Federal regulators on Tuesday signed off on tougher restrictions on banks engaged in complex financial trading, finally moving on one of the most complicated portions of the 2010 revamp of financial regulation. | 12/10/13 20:16:57 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Concerned about an oncoming wave of fragile older drivers, the federal government is working to beef up its safety programs aimed at seniors behind the wheel. | 12/09/13 04:53:11 By - By Lars Thorvaldsen

Billions of dollars in foreclosure settlements between big banks and government regulators haven’t helped Laura Biggs. The California woman is scheduled to lose her home nine days before Christmas because her mortgage company concluded that the house is no longer the primary residence of her husband, who’s been dead since 2003. | 12/09/13 06:00:00 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Employers added a solid 203,000 jobs in November, driving down the unemployment rate three-tenths of a percentage point to 7 percent, the lowest it’s been since November 2008, the Labor Department said Friday. | 12/06/13 14:42:31 By - By Kevin G. Hall

President Barack Obamas high-speed rail program was supposed to deliver faster and more frequent passenger trains to communities across the country. But some of the $10.1 billion in funding for that program could also benefit one of the nations largest freight railroads. | 12/05/13 17:11:53 By - By Curtis Tate

As part of his visit to Asia this week, Vice President Joe Biden is driving home a message: After three years of talks, its time to wrap up the largest trade deal in U.S. history. | 12/05/13 15:55:18 By - By Rob Hotakainen

North Carolina has lot riding on the outcome of the closed-door drama playing out in Washington as members of Congress work against a deadline this month to hammer out divisions in a new five-year farm bill. | 12/05/13 18:02:34 By - By Renee Schoof

President Barack Obama worked Wednesday to focus attention – again – on the growing income disparity between rich and poor that he says is a top problem for the country but which persists five years into his presidency. | 12/04/13 18:05:32 By - By Anita Kumar

Changes in the media and the way people get their news drove the federal agency Wednesday to weigh the issue of disclosure about Internet stories that look like real news stories. | 12/04/13 17:44:28 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Supporters say the public investments, combined with private capital, are model infrastructure partnerships that will help take trucks off crowded highways, reduce pollution and improve the flow of goods to and from seaports. But others wonder whether an industry that boasts about how little it depends on taxpayers really needs the help. | 12/02/13 06:00:00 By - By Curtis Tate